| I can't just declare myself a resident of a state that has no income tax. That doesn't work I know many expats, my cousin and sister included, who establish residency in South Dakota for this purpose. The state only requires a one night stay and a mailing address to establish residency. Once you stay overnight you can get a driver's license which I think is good for 10 years. Many retired people who live in Mexico do this and there are mail forwarding agencies who will act as your mailing address for a fee. It might be a pain in the ass for people who grew up in more populated areas, but I'm from the high plains so it wasn't such a radical idea. Some of my relatives actually live, or have lived in SD. There may be other states with similarly lax residency requirements. edit: here's more info from a quick google search:
http://www.roamingtimes.com/blog/south-dakota-residency.htm note that it says "a handful of states make it easy to establish residency." i tried another google search to find a list of the residency requirements of each state. i found this: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781452.html From a cursory look at this list I THINK that SD is the only state with no state income tax and very relaxed residency requirements. |
I never looked into SD... just the other ones. (I didn't even know SD had no income tax.) That might be an option for me on my next trip.
(Course, none of the "experts" I spoke to brought this up, either. Jerks. :)